2008 Woodie Awards
Letter: Reader dismayed by student apathy, urges attendance at GLBT event
Issue date: 3/6/08 Section: Editorial/Opinion
03/06/08 - To the Cigar,
The University of Rhode Island GLBT Center, Hillel and University Art Galleries are hosting one of the most poignant exhibitions of our times - Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals, 1933-1945.
This exhibition, which mainly details the discrimination and persecution of homosexuals by the German Nazi regime, is a fascinating peek into the daily lives of people who lived in the shadow of death and abject oppression. Sponsored by the United States Holocaust Museum, arrival of this exhibition to this university campus is an extremely significant event.
To commemorate the arrival of the exhibition, various programs have been planned and even successfully held together by GLBT Center, Hillel and the University Art Galleries.
However, what prompts this letter of mine to your esteemed publication is my personal observation of utter lack of interest in this event by our campus students. Granted that anything with a "homosexual" pretext is always swept under the carpet by the general populace of this campus, it is, however, important to note how this event is more important than just a gay exhibition.
There are themes and subtexts that apply, not only to homosexuals, but also to people in general. The Holocaust remains one of the darkest periods of modern times, and isn't it time we looked beyond textbook narrations and into the reality of the event?
Walking through the exhibits, smiling faces of people's pictures just like you and me, make you realize how it could be the picture of just another classmate, neighbor or the person walking beside you. Absorbing the themes in the exhibit make you aware of the striking parallels in today's life and politics.
It has always been my observation that the URI campus is a little devoid of an intellectual discourse on events. There does not exist a forum at this university that allows people to exchange their ideas cutting across lines of departments, classes, fraternities and divisions.
Hailing from an educational background where active discussion of current events was enthusiastically sought, this lack of a continuing dialogue has always been some kind of great deficiency of this place, in my opinion.
I urge you, the reader, to go to the University Fine Arts Galleries and see this exhibition. It is going to be with us until the end of March 2008, and it offers a rare opportunity to experience first-hand an amazing montage of lives.
At the very least, one is sure to be moved by its magnanimity. There is a very famous saying that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. See it - lest our lives be fated to the same doom.
Pankaj L Ahire
The University of Rhode Island GLBT Center, Hillel and University Art Galleries are hosting one of the most poignant exhibitions of our times - Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals, 1933-1945.
This exhibition, which mainly details the discrimination and persecution of homosexuals by the German Nazi regime, is a fascinating peek into the daily lives of people who lived in the shadow of death and abject oppression. Sponsored by the United States Holocaust Museum, arrival of this exhibition to this university campus is an extremely significant event.
To commemorate the arrival of the exhibition, various programs have been planned and even successfully held together by GLBT Center, Hillel and the University Art Galleries.
However, what prompts this letter of mine to your esteemed publication is my personal observation of utter lack of interest in this event by our campus students. Granted that anything with a "homosexual" pretext is always swept under the carpet by the general populace of this campus, it is, however, important to note how this event is more important than just a gay exhibition.
There are themes and subtexts that apply, not only to homosexuals, but also to people in general. The Holocaust remains one of the darkest periods of modern times, and isn't it time we looked beyond textbook narrations and into the reality of the event?
Walking through the exhibits, smiling faces of people's pictures just like you and me, make you realize how it could be the picture of just another classmate, neighbor or the person walking beside you. Absorbing the themes in the exhibit make you aware of the striking parallels in today's life and politics.
It has always been my observation that the URI campus is a little devoid of an intellectual discourse on events. There does not exist a forum at this university that allows people to exchange their ideas cutting across lines of departments, classes, fraternities and divisions.
Hailing from an educational background where active discussion of current events was enthusiastically sought, this lack of a continuing dialogue has always been some kind of great deficiency of this place, in my opinion.
I urge you, the reader, to go to the University Fine Arts Galleries and see this exhibition. It is going to be with us until the end of March 2008, and it offers a rare opportunity to experience first-hand an amazing montage of lives.
At the very least, one is sure to be moved by its magnanimity. There is a very famous saying that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. See it - lest our lives be fated to the same doom.
Pankaj L Ahire